


The Circle of Life

by skyenotdaisy



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: But mostly fluff, F/M, a tiny bit of angst, and crying grant, child birth, daddy ward, post redemption
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-12
Updated: 2015-08-12
Packaged: 2018-04-14 06:50:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4554855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyenotdaisy/pseuds/skyenotdaisy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Grant Ward didn't really understand team movie nights and Skye's constant craving for Disney Movies, but he indulged it happily for her and their baby girl. At eight months pregnant though, it looks like their impatient baby isn't wanting to wait to see those movies in person any longer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Circle of Life

Grant Ward didn’t know how he managed to constantly be talked into these things. Okay, that was sort of a lie. He knew very well how he was talked into these things. It was those big brown eyes of hers that made him nothing short of completely submissive to absolutely anything that she wanted no matter how ridiculous it seemed to him, and these constant movie nights were definitely ridiculous in his book. He couldn’t deny her anything though, especially when she insisted that it wasn’t her who had the constant cravings of watching the Lion King and other various Disney movies, it was their baby girl who had been growing eight months in her mother’s belly now. His little unnamed girl already had him wrapped around her fingers even though she hadn’t even come out yet, which was why he found himself, once again, sitting on the couch in the Playground’s rec room, Skye’s feet in his lap as she stretched across the whole entire couch, watching the Lion King.

Again.

They had come to a routine with movie nights lately. It began with arguing for about ten minutes with everyone trying to decide what they were going to watch. Bobbi didn’t generally care, Mack and Hunter were always for action flicks, and Fitzsimmons would always insist they should watch some sort of scifi movie, and up until recently Skye would usually be with them, but it seemed like ever since she had found out that she was pregnant, all she had wanted to watch was Disney movies, and when Grant had pressed her about it, she had said it was something like she had wanted to go ahead and weed out the Disney movies that they were going to let their daughter watch. Grant hadn’t argued with her since, and basically anybody else had been afraid to since Skye’s mood changes had started. Pretty much any argument with her either resulted in scary looks or her crying which were both responses that nobody really wanted to deal with. So lately, movie nights had basically consisted in a lot of Disney movies, and then food. It was something different every night. Tonight, the food of choice was popcorn covered in chocolate syrup. Grant had given up trying to understand those cravings weeks ago. Simmons had tried to explain the biology of it all to him one day, but Grant had never been one for scientific terms.

“Grant …” A voice whined at him, and he looked over at Skye with a raised eyebrow, wondering what she was wanting until she poked him in the stomach with her feet.

He knew the routine. He took off her socks, setting them down beside him as he massaged her swollen feet.

“Whipped!” Lance called out from his couch a few feet away.

With a little flip of Skye’s hand, Lance’s drink bubbled out of his can and exploded all over him.

There was lots of laughter mixed with frustrated expletives on Hunter’s end while Grant just grinned over at his beautiful girlfriend. “I love you,” he mouthed to her.

She just grinned back at him and for a moment the world stopped with that smile.

It all came crashing down when that smile quickly turned to fear only seconds later. Grant was by her side immediately, a hand resting on her stomach and looking up at her with terrified eyes. “What’s wrong?” He asked.

“The baby … something’s not right,” Skye said, shaking her head frantically.

“Get her to the med bay.” Jemma said quickly, standing up and hurrying ahead of them to go get her equipment ready as Grant lifted Skye into his arms, hurrying after her and just praying to any God that might exist that his two girls were okay.

As soon as Skye was set on her feet, they discovered what the problem was. She started to sob as the water pooled around her feet and Grant lifted her onto the gurney carefully whispering in her ear. “Shhh, everything’s going to be okay,” he told her, because it had to be. He knew he deserved this kind of punishment, but god she didn’t, and surely she wouldn’t be put through losing a baby so close to bringing her into this world. Grant couldn’t even bare to think about that.

“Grant this can’t be happening I’m only 34 weeks,” She said, clenching his shirt tightly in her fists.

“It just means she can’t wait to see her beautiful mother in person.” Grant assured her, brushing his hand through her hair, keeping his voice calm and steady even though on the inside he was fucking terrified. At least being an agent had taught him how to control his emotions around others. Jemma didn’t need both of them being a mess right now and neither did Skye.

“Are you feeling any contractions, Skye?” Jemma asked in her doctor tone.

“No,” Skye said, shaking her head. “Is that bad?”

“Not necessarily,” Jemma responded, but Skye didn’t look that assured. “I’m going to do a quick ultrasound exam and see if I can determine the problem.”

Grant nodded, kissing the top of Skye’s head. “It’s going to be okay, you’re both going to be fine,” he said again, keeping his gaze focused on her.

“You promised you wouldn’t lie to me again,” Skye told him, looking up at him with tear filled eyes, shivering slightly as the cold touched her stomach.

“I’m not,” he promised, and he hoped he wasn’t.

Simmons kept her eyes focused on the ultrasound screen, and the silence filled the whole entire room until Grant couldn’t take it anymore. “Simmons?” Grant spoke up.

“Yes, well, I’m afraid we’re going to have to do a cesarean birth.” Jemma said, trying to sound calm, but Grant could hear the worry in her tone.

“What?! Why?!” Skye called out frantically.

“You don’t have enough amniotic fluid to support the baby, and to be honest, I don’t have the equipment here to slow down the labor which you are already in, but you are not dilated for a natural birth.” Jemma explained.

Grant hadn’t seen his girlfriend this terrified in a long time. Not since that first day a gun had been fired on her back in Peru. “Grant, I can’t, I’m not – I’m not ready!” Skye insisted, shaking her head.

Jemma shot him a look, clearly telling him that she did not have a choice whether she was ready or not.

“Skye, you hacked your way into S.H.I.E.L.D. with a laptop, you hacked NSA feeds, you can literally cause an earthquake with a flick of your wrist, and you single handily stopped a war. I know you can have our baby, and I’m going to be here with you the whole time. Later you can even get onto her like a proper parent, and tell her she shouldn’t be as impatient as her mother.” Grant told her, happy when a little breathless laugh left her lips.

“Nope, she definitely gets that from you.” Skye insisted, wincing slightly as she tried to get comfortable, and after a moment she bit her lip. “Can you do this?” She asked Jemma, her hand protectively covering her stomach.

“I’ve done quite a bit of reading and practicing just in case a situation like this arose, of course I was hoping it wouldn’t, but I mean who can ever properly predict all the different parts of a pregnancy -”

“Jemma!” Skye interrupted.

“I can do it.” Jemma told her.

“Then do it,” Grant said, squeezing Skye’s hand.

Simmons smiled at both of them, even though Grant could still see the panic in her eyes. He just hoped that Skye couldn’t see it. “We’re going to see our baby,” Grant told her, kissing her hand. “We’re going to be parents. You’re going to be an amazing mother, you know that?” he said, hoping to keep her attention focused on him instead of worrying about the baby.

“What if something happens to her, Grant? I can’t -”

“Nothing’s going to happen. Simmons will get her out, and pretty soon, you’ll have our baby in your arms.” Grant told her.

“You’ll be here?” Skye asked, gripping his own hand tightly this time.

“I’m not leaving your side.” Grant assured her.

He didn’t. Grant didn’t know if he could actually move the whole time. Seeing there and watching Skye get cut open, even if it was under Simmons careful knife surrounded by doctors forced him to fight back the instinct to grab her and run and protect her from any danger. Eventually he just had to focus on Skye’s face, which was covered by an oxygen mask, and keep saying reassuring things to her. That was until a little cry took his attention, and it felt like the breath had been knocked out of him.

She was so small, oh god, she was small, but Grant didn’t think he had ever seen something that looked so perfect in his life. It seemed like for that moment, everything in the world just stopped and all that was left was the precious baby curled into the fetal position in Jemma’s hands. Grant’s hands were shaking as he held Skye’s, and for the first time since he had been a kid, he felt tears prickling at the back of his eyes that he desperately choked down. “Simmons,” He called in a broken voice as Simmons turned away from him with his beautiful baby girl where he could no longer see. “Is she -”

“Color is well, she’s breathing on her own, six pounds and three ounces. I’ll have to do more thorough tests in just a moment, but first I have to take care of Skye,” Grant’s eyes stayed focused on the small, so, so small, bundle in her arms, cleaned, and still obviously very fussy, as she came around to face him. “Would you like to hold her? This may be the only chance either of you get for a while.” Simmons told him.

Grant nodded eagerly even though he could feel his heart pounding ridiculously in his ears, and after a brief moment of Jemma demonstrating how to properly cradle her, Grant was holding his daughter. He literally couldn’t find breath as he looked at her. He had never, ever seen something so beautiful in his life, and oh god she was perfect, and Grant couldn’t choke down his emotions anymore as one of those tiny hands tried to wrap around his finger, and his vision became blurry as he looked at her. Their still unnamed beautiful baby girl. “Hey, baby girl,” he finally managed to speak out, gasping slightly as her eyes opened at the sound, seeing his wife’s eyes reflected at him. “I had a pretty bad dad, but I’m going to be better for you, okay? I’m going to give you the world,” Grant assured her, letting out a little choked laugh as their little girl, seemingly unimpressed, just closed her eyes again, trying to shift deeper into the blankets. “She is one hundred percent you, Skye,” Grant said, an ear splitting grin on his face as he looked over at his wife, who was smiling, but her gaze was unfocused due to the drugs. He knelt down beside her, once most of the doctors were out of the way and Jemma was finishing Skye’s stitches, and gently placed their baby in her arms.

Skye looked just as mesmerized as he was sure he had been staring at their girl with nothing but loving adoration in her eyes. “She’s perfect,” Skye gasped, holding her close to her chest as if she never wanted to let her go, and Grant couldn’t say he blamed her. Something so beautiful and amazing had fallen into their lives, and it was going to be so hard to let her out of their sight. Grant just hoped that he could capture this moment in his mind for forever. The two most perfect and amazing people in his life, the ones he knew he didn’t deserve, because no one could ever deserve this much happiness, well except for maybe Skye, just grasping onto each other.

“I love you,” Grant said, as he reached out and stroked Skye’s cheek with his thumb, wiping away her tears. “God, I love you both so much,” he added as he looked down at their baby once again. “I’m going to be good for her, Skye, I swear to God I’m going to do everything I can to be the best dad I can to her, I’m never going to hurt her, I promise.” The words just kept spilling out of Grant’s mouth, and all he could think about was how he couldn’t lose them. He could never lose them.

She was smiling at him, leaning into his hand slightly as he spoke. “I know, Grant. We both do,” Skye said. “In the meantime, we need to get your circuits checked, Robot. I think they’re broken. You’re crying more than I am.”

Grant let out a chuckle. Of course only Skye could make a robot joke in a time like this. “Even if they are, I think I’ll keep them like this. I like it better.” Grant told her, and he truly meant it. He couldn’t imagine this moment being any better, even if he hadn’t been crying.

They’d find out later that Grant actually wasn’t the biggest crier of the group, no, that honor went to Phil Coulson who pretty much started sobbing the moment his three day old surrogate granddaughter, Daisy, in honor of Skye’s dad, Jemma, in honor of the doctor who delivered her and had been constantly taking care of her, Ward, after her father, was placed into his arms for the first time.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed! I did a lot of research to try and make sure everything was medically correct, but it is the internet, so you never know. Anyway, thank you so much for reading, and feel free to leave comments and kudos because they seriously make my day.


End file.
